Harris / Chatzelis A Tenth-Century Byzantine Military Manual: The Sylloge Tacticorum

Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-1-317-18640-3
Verlag: CRC Press
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 22, 182 Seiten

Reihe: Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies

The Sylloge Tacticorum is a mid-Byzantine example of the literary genre of military manuals or Taktika which stretches back to antiquity. It was one of a number produced during the tenth century CE, a period when the Byzantine empire enjoyed a large measure of success in its wars against its traditional enemy, the Arabs. Compiled to record and preserve military strategies, know-how and tactics, the manual discusses a wide variety of matters: battle formations, raids, sieges, ambushes, surprise attacks, the treatment of prisoners of war and defectors, distribution of booty, punishment of military offences, how to mount effective espionage, and how to send and receive envoys. There is even advice on the personal qualities required by generals, on how to neutralize enemy horses, and on how to protect the troops against poisoned food. The work culminates in an account of the stratagems employed by great Greek and Roman military commanders of the past. While, like so much of Byzantine literature, the Sylloge often simply reproduces material found in earlier texts, it also preserves a great deal of information about the military tactics being developed by the Byzantine army during the tenth century. It is the first Byzantine source to record the reappearance of a specialized heavy cavalry (the kataphraktoi) and of a specialized infantry (the menavlatoi) used to repel the attacks of the enemy heavy cavalry. There is also a great deal of information on new infantry and cavalry formations and on the new tactics that required them.

This is the first complete translation of the Sylloge into English. It is accompanied by a glossary of the specialised Greek military vocabulary used in the work and by footnotes which explain obscure references and identify the author’s classical and Byzantine sources. An introduction places the work in its historical and literary context and considers some of the questions that have remained unanswered over the centuries such as its authorship and the date of its composition.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Harris, Jonathan

Chatzelis, Georgios

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Glossary

Conventions used in the translation

Introduction

Translation

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Georgios Chatzelis is a PhD student at Royal Holloway University of London, UK.

Jonathan Harris is Professor of the History of Byzantium at Royal Holloway University of London, UK.